Entwined
by Waves of Wind
Summary: Even when time and space bend and stretch, some things cannot be pulled apart. Some lives are too tightly entwined. Watch Chloe and Max take on the world, through their eyes and the eyes of others.


Ok, so I only recently joined the Life is Strange party, but once I joined I got extremely wasted and headed straight to the dancefloor to show the world just how much I can't dance.

...In other words I quite enjoyed the game. The dialogue is cringe-worthy at times, but the story is very well written and they've clearly put a lot of thought into the time travel aspect to avoid messing things up. Later episodes decided to lay on the subtext nice and thick and my mind took that ball and ran with it like a lab rat on speed.

This is a little different from my normal style, but variation is the spice of life, right? Enjoy!

I obviously do not own the rights to these characters, bla bla bla, insert disclaimer here.

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The first time I realized Max was beautiful? That's kind of embarrassing. I should have realized it sooner, but I'm kinda stupid when it comes to mushy stuff like that. The first time I thought she was hot is easy, though.

The first time I realized Max was hot was when I saw her again for the first time in 5 years. When that face popped up over my hood, I felt my eyes widen in shock and it seemed almost as if time had slowed down. Fuck, maybe it did, considering what I now know about Super Max.

Older, different, but unmistakably Max. Like I could forget that face.

"Max?!"

"Chloe?!"

We just stared at each other in shock, frozen, until a voice in my mind decided to ruin the moment. _'Shit…Max got all girl-next-door hot.'_ A loud cry of pain from Max's friend snapped us out of our daze and I threw the door of her truck open. "Get in, Max!"

Thankfully I had little time to contemplate that thought while we driving to my place. Sure, I stole a few glances at her, but once the shock and adrenaline wore off, everything else came rushing back. Missing her. Hating her for leaving. The anger. The pain. The betrayal. Before I knew it I'd opened my stupid mouth and I was slinging every hurtful comment and barbed question that jumped to mind at her.

She wasn't Max in that moment. She wasn't the friend who I'd missed so much. She was just another person who left me all alone and I wanted to make her hurt, dammit! I wanted to make her hurt, because she'd sure as fuck hurt me!

Fair? Of course it wasn't fair. I was being a total asshole, but I didn't care right then. All I cared about was that she hadn't even tried to talk to me in five fucking years and she'd been in town for a month and hadn't even tried to contact me. Those weak-ass excuses weren't doing her any favours either.

Yeah, of course I regret it now. That wasn't how we should have reconnected. Well…Ok, maybe me driving to the rescue should have been a part of it because I'm just awesome like that, but it would have been nice if I could have stopped myself from being a cunt immediately afterwards.

Anyway, enough with the self-hate. I've had plenty of that the last few years.

Life got seriously weird after that for a while. I mean, it's weird enough to see your best friend again after 5 years. Having her show up with a story of how she essentially made physics and reality as a whole her bitch by travelling back in time, complete with proof? I'm amazed my head didn't immediately explode.

Not that my body wasn't going nuts being near her. Yeah, I had a girl crush on Rachel, anyone with half a brain would have had one. Being near Max? No fucking contest. Having Max in my life…Fuck, this is gonna sound all fucking mushy, but it was like finally seeing sunlight again.

I'll have your balls if you tell anyone I said that, clear?

She put up with my stupid shit. She cared about me. She protected me. I told Max that Rachel saved me and I meant that, but…I don't think I'll ever know how often Max saved my life, literally and figuratively.

She was my friend again, so I really tried to ignore it when my body told me that friends wasn't enough anymore.

Look, I'm not really a touchy-feely girl. Rachel and Max are the obvious exceptions but when it comes to most of my friends? Yeah, hands to yourself, please.

I don't know what it is. A psychologist would probably start going on about losing dad and problems with intimacy, but fuck all that. Intimacy is earned. It just takes people longer to earn it with me.

Anyway, I'm not like that, but Max is. Again, she's obviously not like that with everyone, but if Max even remotely likes you she's plenty affectionate. It's just this thing she does and I think it shows just how big her heart is. She has this need to show people around her that she cares.

She was always grabbing my hand, dragging me along, touching me, holding me.

It drove me fucking nuts.

Part of me freaked the fuck out. Gay panic, I suppose? I like to think I'm open-minded, but that doesn't mean something like this can't come as a shock. I couldn't screw things up just because I wanted to pin her against a wall every time she took my hand.

Yeah, yeah, I know. The lesbian pining after her best friend but too afraid to make a move because she doesn't want to lose her. We're like a pillow fight and a wrestling match away from a crappy romantic comedy.

Anyway, the rest of me was stuck somewhere between reluctant acceptance and utter denial. I tried my hardest to stomp on any thoughts that were 'more than friendly' and immediately discarded any notions of actual feelings. As far as I was concerned, I was just learning that I was gay and I was all focussed on Max because I was just horny and…Dude, have you met Max? Girl's cute as shit.

Couldn't really keep that up for long.

Every moment I spent with Max, every lingering touch just made me fall a little further and at some point Max wasn't just my sweet, cute best friend anymore who I kind of wanted to push into my bed so I could fuck her senseless.

She became my Max, even though I didn't have a right to call her that yet. I wanted…needed to be with her. To hold and kiss her. And okay, yes, I still kinda wanted to push her into my bed, but those fantasies involved extensive cuddling afterwards now. When she pulled me away from those train tracks and her eyes met mine, all I could think was how much I wanted her. I wanted everything,

This amazing girl who had saved me again and again, I needed her. Everything else could go to hell.

So yeah, hot didn't cover it anymore. Beautiful comes closer and even that feels underwhelming. I don't know, I'm not good with this shit!

I was so wrapped up in my own feelings that it took me way too long to consider if Max even felt anything more towards me. I might have kind of dropped subtlety at that point. Just a bit.

Look, I'd just spent a night with Max half-naked in the pool, alright. I think I exercised a considerable amount of restraint the next morning, all things considered.

"I double dare you, kiss me now." The words hung heavily between us for a moment and I'm not sure who was more surprised that I'd actually said it. Now, I've had a lot of really shitty ideas, but this one probably takes the cake.

Thankfully she saved me from backpedalling or sinking into a total panic in the best way possible.

Look, I know I'm biased, but you have no idea how soft Max's lips are. Like, holy shit dude, I will give up anything remotely unhealthy forever if Max promises to never stop kissing me.

And because I am a fucking idiot, I jerked back and stammered out some excuse before retreating to my bed. Maybe that's a good thing, though. If I hadn't played it off, we never would have left that room. Ever.

Still, she kissed me. She! Kissed! Me! All I wanted right then was to just lay in bed with her for the rest of the day, but alas, Maximus had classes to conquer and I couldn't let my loser ass drag her down by making her skip.

Had fun texting Warren and letting him know he was out of the loop, though. It was a really immature way of staking my claim, but it felt right all the same. I'm sure he's a sweet guy, so it's a shame some part of me is always going to hate him. What can I say? Apparently I'm a possessive bitch.

I'm just lucky Max played it off as a joke at the time, because I had absolutely no answer for her if she asked why I'd tell him something like that. No answer I felt brave enough to give her, anyway.

I knew then and there that I wanted to see this through to its very end and she clearly didn't rewind, so that had to mean something, right? I wasn't brave enough to do this without the memory of how she looked at me, right before she leaned up. If I didn't have that small bit of proof to give me hope, I'd chicken out and we'd never get anywhere.

Still, I almost screwed it all up anyway. I was just so fucking angry at what we found in Frank's RV. So fucking angry at Rachel. Not only had she vanished on me, now it turned out that she'd been lying to my face this whole fucking time and I couldn't even scream at her. So I screamed at Max and she…She just let me.

She tried to listen to me and calm me down, but I didn't want to be calm. I wanted to fight with somebody. I wanted to drag Rachel out of where she was and scream and scream at her, but I couldn't do that. So I tried to pick a fight with the one person who still cared about me. The girl I needed in my life more than anything.

Congrats, Price, you dumb bitch! Great fucking idea! That's what, fuck up #346? Just put it on the list with the others, because you damned well know you're gonna make each and every single one up to her some day!

I was still mad when I got home. I angrily threw the shit in my pockets on to my bed and stood there in the middle of my room, breathing heavily and too wired to decide on what to do now. And then I saw it.

My phone's screen had turned on when it landed on the bed and Max looked up at me from the lock screen. Smiling, carefree, happy.

Just like that all the anger and restless energy in me started to drain away and I picked up my phone. I can't even really name what I felt right then and there as I sank to the floor and leaned against my bed, phone pressed to my chest. Pain? Sorrow? Uncertainty? Shame? It was damned exhausting, I know that much.

So I sat there and I cried. It wasn't exactly dignified crying either. This was 'life punched me in the soul' shuddering sobs. Knowing Rachel had lied to my face hurt, a lot, and I'd shut out the one person who still cared.

Twice my thumb hovered over the call option next to Max's name and I was about to beg her to come over because I needed someone to be with me, but I knew I couldn't. After being such a dick to her, I had no right to ask anything like that without apologizing. Besides, I didn't want her to see me all red-eyed and blubbering.

…What? It was embarrassing alright? I cannot underline enough just how gross the crying was. There was snot.

So I decided to text her an apology. Yeah, lame, I know, but I'm gonna give her a better one in person. Because you know what? I can't fuck up like this again. I won't keep hurting her each time I get angry.

Fuck, I don't know why she puts up with my bipolar ass sometimes. She doesn't need me. She can do so much better, but I can try to be better for her, right? If it's Max, I think I can. So before I completely fuck up again, I'm going to put it all out there.

I want her to be mine and for me to be hers. Now I just need to woman up and tell her. I can do that, right? Right!

...Right?!

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Right then, I hope you enjoyed that. I've got a few others in mind, but a fair bit to do in the coming days, so no promises on when the next one will come out.

I was thinking of going with Max's perspective of the situation next chapter and from that point on the next few chapters would kinda sorta be in chronological order. I might jump forwards or backwards a bit occasionally. We'll see.

I'm always interested in what you guys think, so leave a comment!


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